Democrat senators who received donations from Biden FCC nominee haven't committed to recusal

Democratic senators who received contributions from President Biden's nominee for the Federal Communications Commission, Gigi Sohn, while her nomination was under consideration haven't said whether they are going to recuse themselves from voting on her confirmation.

Her third confirmation hearing since Biden nominated her in October 2021 took place on Tuesday. The committee has yet to vote on her nomination.

Under questioning from Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz, ranking member of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, Sohn said she doesn't think it was inappropriate to donate to Democratic senators while her nomination was pending. 

Cruz noted that Sohn made over $1,000 in donations to senators, some of whom have been critical of her nomination

"Do you believe it was poor judgment to give 12 separate political contributions to Democrat senators while your nomination was pending?" Cruz asked.

"I'm a citizen who just wanted to participate in the democratic process," Sohn replied. "Relatively small donations, no I don't."

The senators who received the donations include Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), who sits on the Commerce Committee considering her nomination, Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), John Fetterman (D-Pa.) and Michael Bennet (D-Colo.).

"I've been in the Senate ten years," said Cruz. "I have never seen a nominee make contributions to senators while your nomination is pending. I've never seen that once. I had my staff search the records, if we could find anyone in the Trump administration who had done that. My staff was unable to find that."

The American Accountability Foundation has called on the four senators to recuse themselves from voting on her confirmation. 

"Ms. Sohn's donations to your campaigns and your acceptance of her contributions during the pendency of her confirmation have irrevocably corrupted the decision-making process and made an objective vote on her confirmation impossible," the organization's president, Thomas Jones, wrote in a letter last week to the four.

"As the Senate Ethics Manual rightly points out," he noted, "'The public has a right to expect Members, officers, and employees to exercise impartial judgment in performing their duties. The receipt of gifts, entertainment, or favors from certain persons or interests may interfere with this impartial  judgment, or may create an appearance of impropriety that may undermine the public's faith in government.'

"While Ms. Sohn's donations were not illegal, they were unethical. The campaign contributions will undermine the people's confidence in your and her decisions by creating the perception that campaign contributions are part of lawmaker's decision-making process to support her, and that Ms. Sohn has a bias towards certain lawmakers, those who she has donated to, and is incapable of rendering impartial decisions" at the FCC.

Sohn also contributed $2,900 to President Biden's 2020 presidential campaign. 

Republican senators blasted Sohn for her past controversial statements, including describing Fox News as "state-sponsored propaganda."

Alaska Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan asked Sohn if she stands by her description of Fox News.

"The FCC doesn't have jurisdiction over Fox News," she replied. 

Sohn said she wouldn't recuse herself from any matters related to Fox News if they came before the FCC.

Sohn also asked her Twitter followers to donate to liberal nonprofit Fight for the Future, which paid for billboards that referred to certain senators on both sides of the aisle as corrupt. Cruz described her tweets as a fundraising effort for the group, but she rejected that characterization.